Morning Brief: Wednesday, October 7, 2015

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With 12 days remaining in this campaign, the talk on the trail continues to be dominated by niqabs and 12-nation trade deals, with no sign that’s going to change any time soon. Yesterday Stephen Harper continued to stir the pot by telling the CBC that a Conservative government would look at banning public servants from wearing the niqab. “That’s a matter we are going to examine,” he told Power and Politics host Rosemary Barton. “Quebec, as you know, has legislation on this and we are looking at that legislation.”

In Surrey, Tom Mulcair said the billion dollar pledge was an admission the deal would do just that. “He’s just admitted it by talking about that sort of compensation.” The NDP leader also took his anti-TPP message to farmers.

Defending therapies that attempt to turn gays straight probably wasn’t Jagdish Grewal’s wisest move. Yesterday it came to light that the Conservative candidate in Mississauga-Malton had written an editorial asking: “Is it wrong for a homosexual to become a normal person?” Keeping him around certainly didn’t feel right, so the Conservatives promptly kicked him to the curb.

Also wrong? Opposing military operations in Iraq and Syria, says former chief of defence staff Rick Hillier. “I would like to see Canada do more of what it’s doing,” he declared Tuesday in Winnipeg. “Let’s face it, ISIS is not an organization that I think we’re going to have success negotiating a settlement with. You’ve got to decapitate that ISIS leadership the best way you can.”

Hockey season kicks off tonight and the Toronto Blue Jays are soaring into the playoffs, but they’re hardly the only games in town. As our Kyle Duggan points out, which parties get big ad buys in highly anticipated games during the last stretch of the election campaign is a bit of a sport onto itself.

Could former Conservative campaign worker Michael Sona, who was convicted in the 2011 robocalls case, be facing additional jail time? If a federal prosecutor has their way he will. The Citizen’s Glen McGregor has that story.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre doesn’t want any s*&t from the feds on this one. He says the government is playing “cheap” politics by calling on the city to suspend its plan to dump eight billion litres of sewage into the St. Lawrence River. He’s given officials from Environment Canada three days to meet him and city bureaucrats in order to talk alternatives. “If the government of Canada — who is really credible in matters of science and who think ‘The Flintstones’ are a documentary — are trying give us lessons to win political points,” he mused, “I am not getting into it.”

Here and there:

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe holds a news conference on the Pacific Rim deal in Montreal, takes part in a debate and has a photo-op in Longueuil.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair gives a speech in Enoch, Alberta and has a media availability. Later he makes a speech in Whitefish Bay and holds a media availability in Kenora.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May hosts a campaign event in Langford, B.C., joined by candidates Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) and Frances Litman (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke). She’ll also hold an event at a solar power manufacturer in Victoria.

Statistics Canada releases the value of building permits for August, a study on political participation and civic engagement among the youth (2013) and also a study on the impact of mental health problems on family members (2012).

Union leaders representing approximately 317,000 federal government workers vote early in the country’s 42nd election campaign in Ottawa.

Russia’s involvement in Syria’s civil war seems to be escalating. Yesterday NATO’s secretary general confirmed Russian planes made a second foray into Turkish airspace and said Russian ground troops were in Syria as well. “It’s unacceptable, it’s dangerous, and it’s reckless behaviour and it adds to the tensions,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNN about taking to Turkish airspace.

In Featured Opinion:

L. Ian MacDonald says the Trans Pacific Partnership is allowing both Harper and Mulcair to return to fighting this election on their own terms — by giving Harper some good news on the economic front, and by allowing Mulcair to take back some of the leftish blood-and-thunder rhetoric he lost to Justin Trudeau’s Liberals.

Jeff Sallot refuses to mince words about the Conservatives’ embrace of identity politics — their exploitation of the niqab issue and a “barbaric practices” policy that seems designed to encourage Canadians to monitor their immigrant neighbours both point to a campaign strategy based on coded racism.

Former Canadian Forces intelligence officer Robert Smol has some questions about Trudeau’s promise of “free” post-secondary education for veterans. How much would it cost? Who would qualify? And how are you going to cope with resentment in the ranks over length of service vs. length of benefit?

And finally, Warrior Princess Marg Delahunty is back, but she’s not looking to plant another lip lock on the prime minister. While she insists she “simply adores Stephen Joseph Harper,” this time around she’s urging Canadians to vote to kiss him goodbye and raise a few cents for Syrian refugees in the process. “For the love and honour of god,” on October 19th, “give the poor crime minister the chance he so desperately needs to stop all his relentless, exhausting, fear mongering and panic pushing and terrifying the Canadian citizenry into a frenzy of dread.”